In the hierarchy of victims of the Troubles, informers rank as the lowest of the low. Even today, two decades into the peace process, nobody has any time for touts. In republican areas, they remain reviled.
The families of those who were abducted, stripped, shot, and dumped on lonely border roads have long been silenced or shunned, their stories left untold. So it's most welcome that their voices are finally being heard.
On Thursday, relatives of those allegedly killed by Freddie Scappaticci were in court demanding that an outside police force – as opposed to the PSNI – investigate the 24 killings in which he was reportedly involved.
A lawyer for the families of Caroline Mooreland, Joseph Mulhern and other victims told Belfast High Court that Scap was allowed to murder to enhance his position as a British spy.
The £10 touts, like single mother Caroline and other poor souls, were thrown to the wolves to big up Freddie Scappaticci. There was nothing glamorous unfolding here. This was a million miles from James Bond type fantasy.
But as vile and depraved a character as Scap undoubtedly is, even more despicable are those who employed him.
The high-ranking state officials with names we never get to hear who protected, and are still protecting, their agent. The men in well-cut suits with fat salaries who let Scap away with murder time and time again.
The men, who unlike loyalist and republican killers, have officially clean records and whose careers and lives have progressed unhindered by the blood staining their hands.
The men who never fired a shot themselves but who, at the very least, coldly and clinically stood idly by while their man killed at will. If Freddie Scappaticci is a monster, he's a monster of their making.
And then there are those who, just as much as the British establishment, want to keep the door closed on Scap's sordid history – the Provo top brass.
Let's remember that those who claim to lead the crusade against collusion, did everything possible to discredit anyone trying to expose Scap as a British agent in May 2003.
Back then, he proclaimed his innocence and the Sinn Féin machine swung into action. Martin McGuinness denounced the "nameless, faceless securocrats" making outrageous allegations against an innocent west Belfast man.
Gerry Adams said he believed Scap and rebuked journalists who had pursued the story. "The losers were the media folk because, in an unquestioning way, they took a line from faceless people," the president pontificated.
"There is a big job of work to be done by the media to redeem themselves," he added. Of course, it's clear now that Martin and Gerry were on the wrong side of the truth. And it's about time that they, and not just the Brits, were held to account over their cover-up for Scap.
